The timing of broadcast signals received by televisions and radios depends on the medium through which the signals are sent. For example, a person listening to the audio of a local radio broadcasting a live event while watching the live event on his television with the television sound off may be confused because of the delay between the television and the radio. Due to differences between radio and television transmission delays, attempting to listen to a local radio broadcast coverage of a live event while simultaneously watching the same live event on cable or satellite television (with the television audio off) is an annoying and confusing experience.
FIG. 1 is a schematic illustrating the above problem. A live event 102, such as a sporting event, is being televised at block 104 and broadcasted through a local radio 106. The television coverage of the live event 102 may be transmitted using several means: over-the-air broadcast 108, cable broadcast 110, and satellite broadcast 112. Eventually, a television receiver 114 receives the video and audio feed of the live event 102. However, the different means of transmissions 108, 110, 112 also result in different reception time. For example, the signal “bouncing off” a satellite 112 may create about a 3 second delay between the live event 102 and the broadcast coverage of the live event 102 received on the television receiver 114. On the other hand, the cable broadcast delay may be shorter than the satellite broadcast delay.
The transmission feed of the radio broadcast 106 over-the-air 116 may reach a radio receiver 118 at the same residence 120 of the television receiver 114 approximately a few seconds after the radio signals are broadcast. Therefore, the audio from the radio receiver 118 may not match the video of television receiver 114 because of the different delays involved in the different means of transmissions.
Therefore, a need exists for a radio receiver having variable delay capability so that the audio from a radio broadcast of a live event matches with the video from a television displaying the live event.